The Government not only cannot define racism, it would seem, it cannot recognise racism when it hits it in the face. 

As Health Minister Ayesha Verrall rallies to defend the indefensible, it is important to note that this unethical policy has not appeared out of the blue. It stands on the foundation of racism that this Government has normalised.

This week we will deliver our open letter calling for a condemnation of all forms of racism to Justice Minister Kiri Allan as planned. Fed up, 28,648 New Zealanders have signed the letter having identified that something is very wrong in New Zealand. It is the letter that NZME refused to publish.

“We call on you to make clear to the Ministry of Justice and the Human Rights Commission (including the Race Relations Commissioner) that as minister you do not tolerate any form of racism and that no matter who it is targeted at, the Government will treat the matter seriously.”

The Government keep trying to hide behind their policy and legislative failures by accusing everyone else of racism, but they are unwilling or unable to define what racism is nor confirm that it is something they take seriously when it is directed at anyone. This latest healthcare revelation is a symptom of this.

The incorporation of racism into legislation and public policy must be stopped. It is unethical and indefensible.

Every New Zealander should be able to feel safe in the knowledge that if they need medical treatment their race will not unfairly disadvantage them. There is a thing or two written about this in the Human Rights Act 1993!

Ignoring practical alternatives and failing to effectively engage with those who can provide solutions, Labour has simply forged ahead with a race-based health system.

Given that the recent health reforms embedded division of races in the legislation by forming a separate Maori Health Authority, it is hardly unexpected that further race-based policies would follow. Co-governance is a recipe for further disharmony not cooperation.

Even before the Pae Ora (Health Reform) legislation came into effect $22million was allocated to establishing the Maori Health Authority board headed up by Nanaia Mahuta's sister Tipa.

The New Zealand Initiative produced a comprehensive report on what is actually needed for Health Reform. 

The foreword of this report was prepared by Dr Des Gorman Emeritus Professor of Medicine, who is himself Maori. In a podcast discussion on this issue he said:

"We can all agree that the time to address the underlying causes of this inequality is well overdue. However, what is needed are objective data about what leads to improved outcomes rather than political rhetoric."

He is exactly right. And was also right when he defended the professionalism of the health service refuting the accusations of systemic or institutional racism.

Additionally, the commentary of inequitable outcomes was noted by many as having much more complex contributing factors. Most of these factors are outside of the control of health services. Ultimately, there is no evidence that basing service delivery by race will achieve better health outcomes.

Dr Lawrie Knight also produced a very considered and detailed submission regarding the health reform - click to read. 

Some of New Zealand's brightest minds can clearly see through the accusations of systemic and institutional racism that are the fallback position of this Government. They know it is a distraction from real issues. 

Race should never be a consideration, in the allocation of health services. Every New Zealander's health is important and every life is valued. It is frankly sickening to see Kiwis valued differently depending on their race. Who their ancestors are.

This is why Hobson’s Pledge has been fighting against racism so aggressively over the past few months. It is embedded in our Government and public services and we cannot afford to be complacent. New Zealand is a proud multicultural nation and to suggest that my Maori heritage would be a factor in me getting access to healthcare that another Kiwi might need more should be abhorrent to everyone.

I know I have asked you to sign a lot of petitions lately, but it is working! They allow us to draw attention to these issues and it is very hard to ignore our collective voice. So, I am asking again. Please sign:

New Zealanders want a health system based on need, not race. Sign the petition to demand that the New Zealand Government immediately halts all race-based prioritisation in healthcare and triages patients by need and urgency. 

We cannot effect real change while so many New Zealanders are being forced to be silent and accept the racist division of our wonderful country.

Please help us normalise this conversation and give courage to more New Zealanders to say ENOUGH!

One nation, one people. Don’t let them keep dividing us.

So many issues driven by our current Government have race at their foundation.

As I wrote about last week, we are still working through the impact of the Safer Online Services and Media Platforms proposal from the Department of Internal Affairs and Independent Electoral Review recommendations.

These demonstrate that instead of being an inclusive multicultural nation where equal rights before the law are assured, we have become a divided nation.

It now seems that as a Maori, I am not only afforded different rights before the law but also expected to forgo all democratic rights of representation and consideration due to the arrogant claims of a Maori representative whom hardly anyone voted for.

Yesterday, Rawiri Waititi, the co-leader of the Maori Party, was discussing gang lawlessness and, staring into his camera, told the Prime Minister and the leader of the National Party that they needed to "shut their mouths."

In an environment of escalating crime, and with so many families and businesses living in fear, we can’t even discuss the foundational issues of law and order.

The Maori Party is not the elected representative or the voice of Maori. In the last election, with a Maori roll of 276,013, the Maori Party secured only 33,632 votes, representing just 12%. When the total number of eligible Maori voters are 473,046 (nearly half of whom chose not to be separated by race and opted out of the Maori roll), they secured only 7% of the total Maori vote.

We frequently hear democracy demonised as the tyranny of the majority, but tyranny of the minority is an appalling alternative.

Waititi commented on this situation in Opotiki when he stated “Christopher Luxon, Chris Hipkins need to shut their mouths and stop using our people as a political football to score points. They have no business whatsoever commenting on matters they know nothing about. Keep my iwi out of your mouth.”

When the community of Opotiki has closed schools and parks in an environment of fear, it seems that the leader of the Maori Party not only believes he represents all Maori but also suggests that non-Maori do not warrant any consideration or protection.

He went on to comment, "Please be respectful at this particular time as our community mourns their loved one." It is hard to avoid the conclusion that he is suggesting that ALL Maori are affiliated with or members of the Mongrel Mob.

How does New Zealand hope to come up with solutions when political leaders can demand that those of a different ancestry "shut their mouths" on such foundational issues as law and order?

With all that is happening now, the last thing we need is for politicians to shut their mouths. We need more accountability, more transparency, and, most of all, more answers.

The Department of Internal Affairs, the one who produced the proposal to limit and restrict what we can say online, except for Maori, is in the firing line for sneaking through changes to the Three Waters legislation without authority. These changes were only picked up by later scrutiny from MPs.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, the former prime minister and constitutional law expert, rightly notes "There is always a temptation in emergency situations to cut corners and depart from constitutional principle. New Zealand lacks the checks and balances to prevent such constitutional slippage."

This does not bode well for the even more complex and unworkable resource management reform legislation.

We know how easily constitutional slippage can occur, like when this Government attempted to remove equal suffrage from New Zealand through the Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill. This would have become law if the bill hadn't been successfully challenged by our supporters. Your support and public outcry do work!!!

The tactics of the Department of Internal Affairs reported this week demonstrate why we must continue to be diligent and under no circumstances should we “shut our mouths”.

Thank you for your massive support in making submissions on the bi-lingual road signs. We are close to 20,000 submissions, with another two weeks to go before the closing date.

It is hard not to conclude that our Prime Minister is himself keen for us to shut our mouths when he comments on those criticising the road sign proposal: “There is a racist underbelly in some of the public dialogue around this and that does seem to be an audience the National Party are trying to appeal to.”

This issue is discussed in length in an article by Graham Adams called 'Are bilingual road signs safe or even sensible?'

Your support in making submissions on the bilingual road signs is not representative of a racist underbelly but rather a representation of New Zealanders who are frustrated by a narrative of race-based division and want real, practical, effective solutions that deliver better outcomes for all.

If you haven't already, use our submission tool to have your say on the bilingual signs.

In a race to the October election, our current Government is determined to avoid any scrutiny of their failure to deliver a single positive outcome for New Zealanders. Instead, they are doubling down on every ideological and divisive bit of social engineering they can get their hands on. That leaves us to repeatedly fight for and defend essential foundations such as free speech, democracy, and equality before the law.

In the words of TS Elliot, we are “distracted from distraction by distraction”.

This is worth remembering when the media circus buzzes around the stupid behaviour of certain ministers. Sure, we need to hold ministers like Michael Wood accountable, but we can't allow it to obscure the pernicious policies and laws continuing down the conveyor belt at the Beehive.

However, a lot of the 'distractions' we are being hit with lately are actually connected to our fight for democracy and equality before the law. We can't afford not to address them. 

For example, as we wait for the select committee to report back on the contentious and fundamentally flawed RMA reform legislation, we have been “distracted” by calls for submissions on:

1. Bilingual signage proposals from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency – submissions close at the end of June.
2. Safer online services and media platforms proposal released by the Department of Internal Affairs – submissions close 31 July 2023.
3. And just this week, the Electoral Reform Report produced by He Arotake Poititanga Motuhake or, for the 96% of New Zealanders who do not speak Te Reo Maori, the “Independent Electoral Review” – submissions close 17 July 2023.

The first is another blatant example of government departments going ahead with vanity projects that have nothing to do with their legislated purpose and which favour virtue signalling over things like safety, accessibility, and democracy.

You'll see our ad in this week's Herald on Sunday encouraging New Zealanders to have their say on the matter. 

The second is more concerning as it introduces race-based policy to the issue of censorship and speech laws. It puts forward the idea that Māori should be held to different, more lax, standards of online behaviour and that is very worrying. It also continues the theme of co-governance structures by proposing key decision-making roles should be iwi-appointed.

This is a fundamental right at stake, and one that is key to the protection of democracy, and the Department of Internal Affairs wants to allocate different rights based on who your ancestors are. 

The third report was foisted upon us this week and covers a wide range of electoral issues while carefully avoiding constitutional issues like the MMP system itself. Unsurprisingly, repeated references Te Tiriti o Waitangi are made throughout to add a further layer of complexity. Those "Treaty Principles" seem to be an obligatory, albeit vaguely defined, part of anything bureaucrats produce. 

Funnily enough, the report does not touch on the opportunity to remove Maori electorates. This is despite the observations by the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System recommending that MMP could provide better electoral representation for Maori than the Maori electorates, given the very large geographic area of these electorates, thus improving representation.

Instead of any consideration or opportunity to discuss this option that would allow Maori greater iwi/hapu-centric representation models and much more unified engagement in local communities, the report proposes greater complexity.

As I wade through another Government document (all 338 pages of it - I read it so you don't have to!) it is evident that, yet again, Maori are to be treated differently before the law with the option of being able to register to vote based upon their ancestral or iwi connections rather than their physical address. They also would have the option of being on different rolls for local elections than for general elections:

“There may be many reasons why voters of Māori descent may want to be on different rolls for national and local elections. The electoral rolls already record a person’s general electorate and local ward, and so they should be able to capture their roll choice for each. We consider that allowing them to make separate roll choices for national and local elections, rather than having to update their roll choice between elections, will remove an administrative barrier. In this way, the Crown can uphold its Tiriti / Treaty obligations to actively protect Māori citizenship rights and participation by ensuring Māori have the freedom to choose rolls.”

If you want to put yourself through the 338 pages of woke drudgery feel free to find the report here! 

While this Government of broken promises and failure to deliver prepares to campaign for re-election, it would seem they want to give the appearance of being busy by overwhelming us with ineffective, unnecessary, and poorly timed proposals for change. Change very, very few Kiwis are asking for.

In addition, we cannot forget that the Minister of Maori Development, Willie Jackson, has gone very quiet on his He Puapua Mk II report. His update in October last year was designed to calm an increasingly concerned population with an emphatic "nothing to see here, folks!" He said he was re-looking at the language, but now we have deafening silence.

It should not be lost on anyone that one of the authors of both He Puapua and the new mystery version, Professor Jacinta Ruru, was also one of the authors of the proposal to the New Zealand Law Society to introduce new statutory duty for lawyers to adhere to the undefined “principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

Willie Jackson and his colleagues have a history of trying to get the stuff they know will be unpopular hidden below the radar. Remember He Puapua was kept hidden until after Labour was re-elected in 2020 and its recommendations around health and water were quickly adopted. The RMA reforms usher in another lot of He Puapua objectives.

I know that we all have so much better things to do and keeping track of our Government’s tactics is exhausting but we know that our silence is interpreted as support.

We are working on how we can best slow this runaway freight train of division and racism. But, for now, please keep talking about these issues – this is not the country we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.

For now, if you haven’t already, please use our submission tool to have your say on the bilingual signs.

After spending this long weekend on New Zealand's roads, I know that many of you must have been looking at the road signs and wondering “Why isn’t there more Maori language on them?”

Invest resources to improve road safety and capacity? NO! The important thing is prioritising the inclusion of more Maori language on signage.

That is certainly how our bureaucrats think.

Waka Kotahi – the New Zealand Transport Agency – is currently running a programme called He Tohu Huarahi Māori bilingual traffic signs programme with Te Mātāwai. This programme will see the rolling out of new road signage that preferences Te Reo Māori as the primary language with English relegated as the translation, sometimes in smaller font.

If you think New Zealanders need better, safer roads, and this should include signs that we all understand, use our submission tool to make your voice heard

Justifying their investment in this work, the Transport Agency says: 

“Waka Kotahi wants to contribute to having te reo Māori seen, heard and spoken wherever possible to continue the revitalisation of the language.”

When did this become part of the remit for a government transport agency? Will its next project be making sure the music we listen to in our cars is sufficiently diverse?

The very obvious truth is that language revitalisation is not in Waka Kotahi's remit. It's core purpose is:

“Our responsibility to contribute to an efficient, effective and safe land transport system in the public interest is set out in the Land Transport Management Act 2003.”

Te Reo Māori is unique to New Zealand and there is a long-running, concerted effort by our Government to preserve and revitalise it. However, there are dedicated funds and agencies for this.

It is frankly absurd for our Transport Agency to be focusing on cultural projects when there is so much for them to be doing that is central to their mission.

According to the 2018 census, only 4% of New Zealanders can hold a conversation about basic everyday things in Te Reo Maori. By prioritising an attempt (probably futile) to educate 96% of the population, in a language they don’t speak via road signage, Waka Kotahi is undermining its core responsibilities.

While bilingual signs may seem like a nice addition, every expenditure of public funds should be dedicated to the agency's primary objectives, rather than virtue signalling nice-to-haves.

Our Prime Minster even tried to assure us that this is not costing any extra money, it will just be when signs need replacing. Does he expect you to believe that they have not committed a massive investment in developing this idealistic project, and what about the cost of consulting and further development?

It is not the role of Waka Kotahi to try and navigate the sensitivities of culture and language. They more than have their hands full with the record number of complaints about potholes damaging cars they received last year and the immense damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Share my frustrations? Have your say here.

We are apparently to be educated into Te Reo Maori via these road signs - as we fly past at 100km per hour - but it is increasingly difficult to keep up with the ever-changing etiquette associated with the language and culture more generally. 

Just this week ACT asked for a legislative amendment to provide a clear definition of "mātauranga Māori" but it was voted down by Labour. The NZ Herald reported:

"Legal scholars argue rigid definitions fail to acknowledge flexibility of a Te Ao Māori worldview, and the fact elements of mātauranga evolve over time and are usually handed down via word of mouth”

In March this year, Lawyer Lynell Tuffery Huria declared it inappropriate for Maori to be included in the Oxford dictionary explaining her disapproval was because “we are just being more and more assimilated and that’s not what we want.”

We aren't allowed definitions to better understand the concepts and names being used by our Government departments and education system. Kiwis are expected to engage with Te Reo Maori but not too much. How is anyone to know what is the right thing to do?

Ultimately, our roads are not the appropriate place for language education. New Zealanders are entitled to clear, direct instructions and information in the language that the overwhelming majority of us speak.

Join us in telling the Government exactly that.

Let's keep our Government agencies accountable!